Mayor Slay: "Not Willing to Wait Forever" for County to Approve Smoking Ban

The honorable Francis Slay may be a "butthead" for never getting back to Riverfront Times regarding our survey of local politicians and their views on smoking, but the St. Louis mayor is willing to share his thoughts via his blog.

On Sunday the mayor once more blogged about a proposed city-wide smoking ban. Like his previous posts, the mayor is still in favor of a city-wide ban if St. Louis County also establishes a similar prohibition. But it seems Slay is growing somewhat frustrated with his counterpart St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley and the county council.

Writes Slay:

One element of (Alderwoman Lyda) Krewson's bill that has already drawn a lot of
discussion is the provision that it would only go into effect when St.
Louis county passed the same restrictions. My staff is continuing its
discussion on this issue with St. Louis county exec Charlie Dooley,
whose position is obviously important. But, we have also begun
conversations with individual mayors and with other officials.

I
still believe that the fairest and most useful restrictions would be
national, statewide, and regional. But, I am not willing to wait
forever for everyone to reach the same reasonable conclusion.

In related news, Slay also states in his blog that he is against a smoking ban on the playing floors of St. Louis casinos -- a measure that could give the Missouri gaming industry a continued leg-up against the competition. Gaming boats in the Metro East have blamed a state-wide smoking ban in Illinois for their diminished revenue over the past 18 months.